


*SCREAMING*

by orphan_account



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Comfort/Angst, Experimental Style, It's not porn, M/M, Non-Binary Joshua, its technically not oviposition or unbirthing or vore, so therefore its not porn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-25
Updated: 2017-05-25
Packaged: 2018-11-04 16:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10994352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Unconventional cuddling, probably. I don't know what this is but it never got to the comfort stage of the hurt/comfort and I have decided I hate this fic.





	*SCREAMING*

**Author's Note:**

> Started during a psychotic ep so its weird.  
> Also thanks ComposerEgg for editing.

Now, here, they are more than ever a time bomb about to go off. Neku sees them through the heat haze, the bright glare, a wispy energy ghost and an alarm in his head sends him a warning to leave well enough alone. He ignores it, jogging forth like he’s trying to beat the midday Sunshine lineup, and the being before him sits curled in on themself like they want to shrink out of existence.

“Josh,” he calls, and Josh doesn’t look up, but they have to have noticed him, have to have noticed him long before he came in, because who would be able to sneak in past a creature such as this?

There had been no resistance at the sewer, nor the lounge, and even now by the throne, a strange foreboding is the only deterrent.

They sit pulled in, motionless, broken, beat up, blackout, lost. Neku yells their name again, vainly.

When Neku blinks, the Composer’s form is burned backwards into his retinas; a person-shaped void in the reverse of his eyelids. The aura around them spells ‘help me’ while their posture drips a resigned ‘leave me alone.’

He comes up to them, the seated figure; motionless, suspended light and time and a voiceless cry desperate for something it fears to request.

Joshua deigns to speak, finally, and their voice comes out razorblades and glockenspiel tones. Neku can’t make out words but the feeling.

He reaches out, bridges the void, establishing a physical connection between his fingers and the coalesced energy making up the shape of a shoulder; fingers sinking in to stop. Not like feeling a solid mass; but as if the air had gradually become too dense to press though. Joshua leans into the touch, slight and delicate, nothing and everything all at once.

And Neku says:

“You can trust me, I’m your friend.”

A moment shared; bittersweet and heavy.

‘ _Hold me somewhere safe_ ,’ Joshua requests, the sound nonexistent to the ears but present to the mind, and Neku doesn’t understand at first but a burst of images rain behind his eyes and he smiles soft.

“Of course,” he says.

Joshua smiles too, a wretched and pale thing, light building around them and pulling in until all that is left of them is a bright orb. They fly up and brush Neku’s cheek in what may have been a mock kiss, may have been a touch of reassurance; feather light and strange as it was pleasant.

They drift down to Neku’s cupped hands, Neku marveling at the feel of them, the weightless power nestled in his palms and the cold warmth prickling from his fingers to fade its way up his arms.

Neku pulls them to his heart, and Joshua’s existence burns where it tickles as they phase past. A pain Neku can’t express rips through him as he holds tight to the foreign energy in his chest, drawing it in farther despite it all.

Joshua tries to pull back now, having become aware of the hurt, the damage they could wreak, but Neku’s got them now and won’t let go. They’re safe behind Neku’s ribcage, surrounded by arteries and tissue and the entire world beating and expanding inside.

Neku sinks down as it is done, curls up on the concrete of the Room of Reckoning. Arms wrapped around his chest and tears streaming, he feels Joshua’s worry. It is a long while before he finds the strength to stand, wobble back to Dead God’s Pad to slump on a couch and watch the fish swirl at his feet.

Time stretches out, rushes and slows and skips around him, them, twisting and building upon itself infinitely.

He needs a distraction.

Neku pulls out his phone and texts Shiki, then Beat, not letting them know what he’s doing but instead asking what they’re up to. Shiki answers right away. She’s with Eri, they’re making something; a surprise. Neku tells them he’s excited to see it. Beat takes longer, he’s doing homework. Neku texts him again, words of encouragement, but it goes unanswered.

That’s okay.

He sits still, breathing, feeling Joshua’s potent presence settle and relax. It still hurts, but it’s bearable.  He tries not to think about what this means, that Josh would trust him enough to use him as a safe haven, that Josh trusted him enough to show vulnerability at all. He thinks it anyway, of course, and a familiar giggle sounds in his head; his imagination or Joshua, he can’t tell.

Weird. The entire thing is weird. He friend is cradled, bundled, wrapped sound and tight inside, meshing soul with soul in a way like but unlike a pact, and the burning pain is easing more and maybe he just needed to adjust to this being, this person, sharing his space and and and…

Hunger, exhaustion, apathy, they all hit at once in a perfect storm and Neku groans, flips sideways down to the cushions, head spinning, and hopelessness clamps him down in a leaden grip.

Side effect? Not like Neku cares. Something is breaking, tearing. Panic, but it isn’t him. He feels it anyway, and gives in.

Someone is there. Hands. Piece him back together, glue him into shape. Shush, shush.

‘It’s going to be okay.”

The universe drops out from beneath him and he can’t even cry out.

Silence.

Somewhere warm. Sweet and weightless. A lullaby given form.

‘ _There we go, hmm?_ ’

Neku isn’t breathing. He isn’t anything. A consciousness calling itself Neku, sans a body. There is no sensation, nothing to see, but he isn’t alone.

‘ _This works a little better the other way, it seems_.’ A laugh, dry and mirthless.

It’s Joshua. Neku wants to ask what happened.

 _‘I was too much for you to keep. Be patient. I’ll have you back together in a minute._ ’

Oh. Oh.

Reach out; feel around with whatever sense is left to him. A rift, a scar, barely sealed wound. Press up against this one, fire, hurt, betrayal, worthlessness, guilt. Neku is guided gently away from it like a too-curious toddler.

Another direction. Fondness, longing and more guilt, affection and—

Cut off.

Was that… was it?

Fight towards it again, determination, grab it and don’t let go. Friend, it says. Joshua flashes anger but Neku holds fast. It’s him, it’s him. He feels a reflection of his own energy and pulls it out, pulls it loose. It’s a connection in mind, in soul, and something else. Joshua intervenes more forcefully but not before he’s gotten the barest of adequate glimpses.

‘ _How rude_.’

Neku is jammed back into his body unceremoniously. Gasping, lungs starved, pins and needles chasing the numbness out of his limbs.

He’s not touching anything, floating just above the Composer’s glowing arms, suspended in the air and he’s getting such a disappointed look he wants to laugh.

“You,” he says, holding it in, “you like me.”

Josh drops him the three feet to the couch, letting him bounce against the modest cushion, and flickers down to their RG appearance. Rubs their face, looks away.

“I thought it was rather obvious?”

“Uh.” Unfortunately for Neku, eloquence was not in the books today.

They drift in the silence amid an ocean of awkward.

“I hope,” Josh starts, stalls, presses onward, “I hope you don’t think less of me for these past few minutes.”

“Hey, it’s alright.” Neku shifts to his knees, punches Joshua’s shoulder amicably. Hold in that laughter still, but Joshua is embarrassed and it’s great.

“You’re so strong; I thought you could handle it. I suppose you are only human, after all. I am sorry for putting you through that.”

“It’s fine Josh, really.” Neku sighs, pats the seat beside him. “Are you okay though?”

Josh gives a bemused look. Their fingers wander up to twirl in their hair and they’re pouting, almost.

“I’ll get over it,” they say, flopping onto the white cushion.

“No,” Neku demands. “I’m here for you.”

“It’s nothing,” is the protest, cold, shutdown.

“Bullshit.” Flat.

“I would rather you didn’t pry. My problems are my own.”

“And that’s why you asked me for help, right? Because you can deal with everything yourself?”

“What are you going to do, kiss it better?”

“Maybe I will.”

“Fine,” Joshua says.

“Fine,” Neku echoes.

They unblinkingly regard each other for a long heartbeat before Neku moves, jerking forward to crash lip to lip. Fumble, effort, inexperience and teeth against teeth. Grab their face because Josh’s blooming smirk has given way to a laugh and dammit, Neku is going to get this right eventually.

He sits back in frustration with a “let’s see you do better” and Joshua goes for his cheek while he goes for Joshua’s mouth. They miss, both of them.

Neku’s grins and kisses his fingertip to bop Joshua on the lips.

Smiling and feeling warm, each other’s company a soft melody, worlds touching at the borders and a gentleness to it all.

“Does this mean you like me?” comes the wayward question.

“No,” Neku responds hesitantly. “I do, but not in that way.”

Joshua’s expression drops. They turn away to watch the fish beneath their feet.

“You shouldn’t kiss people you don’t like,” they say. “It’s not nice.”

“…But you liked it, didn’t you?”

“You should go.” Zigzag the question when the answer doesn’t matter.

Neku notices the blue bubble blossoming below him and realizes he’s fucked something up as he dives off the couch.

It misses and dissolves, but already another one is forming where he sits and Joshua won’t even look at him. It’s a shock, the sudden fit, and Joshua’s despondence as he cries out; watching the bubble envelope him, helps nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone wants to adopt this fic and finish it go ahead. Blanket permission. I don't want to look at it anymore.


End file.
